so if you rewind back a bit from the last few tour date entries you’ll notice that i started off my tour with my sister’s wedding. we left from long island with the tour van as mentioned and headed to dc. straight off the bat i will say the whole experience was pretty stressful. just the fact my sister had this massive day planned with so many of our relatives invited (so many of whom have not seen each other in over 15 years) was weighing on me a bit. i know i wasn’t the one even getting married, but i couldn’t help but feel the pressure. though in the end everything went off without a hitch, or whatever that expression is.

we made it to the hotel on time to get ready to go to the rehearsal dinner where we saw my sister, my parents, my new brother in law tim’s family and my cousins. i snuck a few paparazzo shots in, but my sister caught me. antonella was upset with me for sneaking

my cousin danielle and her daughters. maggie is so big now! tim and janelle hosted a slide show, and a bit of a thank you session and gave out some gifts to the wedding party. i got that fantastic skateboard, a really stunning tie and a sleek pair of cuff links. i was really beat by the end of that night

the following morning before the wedding charlotte and i wanted to try and get in a little bit of DC time and went over to the free zoo

we toured the south east asia wing i think, which was cool. but then we had to hurry back to the wedding. after a really beautiful ceremony the troops mounted and got ready to head over to glen echo park, in maryland. the park is a sort of amusement park from the turn of the century that is now a state park so it’s a really cool place to have a wedding

the wedding party went over to have our photos taken at a couple of cool locations before arriving to the reception

this photo would’ve been really cool if my film hadn’t loaded all jenky. i had to retouch the shit out of it to make it even look like something. there were tears and cuts all through the middle.

we got up to this old gas station and snapped a few shots. at this point i think i noticed that because there was another photographer there i didn’t feel the need to take as many shots myself. i can’t wait to see what she got because she shoots film! woooo! yay to film photographers still keeping it alive!

janelle’s bridesmaids were rosanna, jill, antonella and kara. those girls (with the exception of jill) would stay at my house and torment me all through my adolescence!  nah sike, they were cool… they only tormented me a little bit

we then got to the reception kick off. charlotte helped my sis by setting up a sort of photobooth thing up on the stage under this little red awning thing. it worked pretty well but had some issues due to the lack of responsiveness from the remote. i think a cable release on an old 35 mm would’ve worked a bit better because the camera kept “going to sleep” like a computer would and the focus would go off. the photos turned out cool for the most part

here’s one of me and charlotte

tim and janelle’s first dance

me and janelle right after the whole announcing thing and stuff. i have a ron donald haircut thanks to yosef the barber

tim and his mom

janelle’s photographer wanted to test out my camera.. i quickly tried to explain to her how to use it but she took her chances with what she knew. a cool photo of me and chuck came out blurry… oh well

my uncle dave and aunt yvonne

this is the carousel building

brian and danielle, cousin in law and cousin. now at this point i stopped shooting photos because i was too tired and too distracted. so there is a big lapse between moments. eventually night fell and charlotte and i got on the carousel

we took some jokey photos of us having a magnificent time before the ride even started

what a grand ol’ time!

i actually was a lot of fun. we rode along side my aunt diane and  second cousin jack. jack was loving it. second cousin maggie seemed a bit concerned but seemed to enjoy herself too

this guy knew my name and told me to take a picture of him. i did

a few minutes later janelle and tim boarded and i watched from the outside. her film and camera crew boarded with her

i love this one. my sister loves that giraffe

my mom was having a blast on it too!

the little 8mm video edit that was produced from the footage on this ride, along with the rest of the day was so adorable i never threw up. i wish the two of them endless happiness because they really do go so well together and are a perfect couple

after tossing cat peed laptop covers in the parking lot we got into the van and made our way to asheville, nc. this was to be our first long haul. knoxville was originally equidistant between clemmons and wherever we were going after knoxville but because of the cancellation we had quite a drive ahead of us. we loaded up the van, as did girlfriends and his the road

i think we were all pretty exhausted

i think nick or laura drove which allowed me to take a few snapshots of the scenery out the window… more mountains. for some reason when i think of the south mountains NEVER enter my mind. only swamps and deserts, and the truth is there aren’t even many deserts

we did the long drive and eventually landed in the hilly city of asheville. nick got out and posted up against the wall. i think i walked over to this leafy part of the wall and snapped this for some reason

we went outside and headed toward the venue. the only issue we were facing was there was no definite confirmation we actually had a show. the person benny had been in touch with left off with him on a “i’ll call you back” note, but had never called back. so we decided to go straight to the venue to try and sort things out. we go there and there was no one there that dealt with the bar or shows. so while we waited for girlfriends to arrive we decided to check out some of the local hippy-head shops

after finding some free red & white stripped hanker-chiefs we walked into a spot where laura found a hat that she should’ve just haggled for. they totally would’ve let it go for five bucks! it was huge and amazing

i’m not sure what this rock is trying to tell me, but i feel ya. XXX bro

the galfriends showed up a few minutes later and we decided we would just proceed as if we were playing at the bobo gallery whether we actually were on not. the people at the veggie restaurant that was connected to the space didn’t have a clue what was going on so we posted a “FREE SHOW TONIGHT!” live poster in the window and just hoped for the best. jenny designed a flyer for the show and we googled where the nearest copy shop was

we ended  up at a mom and pop copy shop which split its time between copying and dry cleaning… weird.

we all split up and hit the town handing out flyers and posting them on walls of anywhere that music likers might go. i was told not to be ageist so i literally handed them to anyone that walked by with ears. in retrospect.. i should’ve just been ageist because i knew those people weren’t coming. a few people i did hand them to i assume would be really into it and acted like they were totally didn’t come. what a bum out!

nick and i covered a lot of ground and after inspecting much of the city i have decided it’s a cool little city. not anywhere i could live, but if you had to be stuck in the hills in the south this would be a cool place to get stuck. we joined up with the rest of the hounds and friends and headed to a veggie restaurant recommended by a nice lady we passed by.

after lunch we all checked out a cool guitar shop. i have no interest in buying guitar equipment so all i did was marvel at the prices of things. we got info from the clerk that there was a pawn shop type of thing we could go to a bit outside of the city that carried drum equipment. so i went with laura, andy and pat i think to check it out. i am starting to lose memory of how the days went. andy was looking for a cymbal but found nothing but overpriced garb so we headed back to the venue

the bobo gallery had some cool artwork hanging, probably about how society uses the earth as a giant trashcan. they were large pieces, pretty cool stuff

we had quite a while to kill so we hung out for a while. eventually the folks benny spoke to showed up and confirmed that yes, we were playing. later a few folks that we had flyered to turned up and waited patiently for us to set up. on couple, who showed up right as we posted the first poster in the window, came back at 9. they were from baltimore and had originally wanted to come to the show at fan death records house but couldn’t because they were on vacation in asheville… how weird is that! they got a raincheck and saw us that night

we played a cool little set and sold a few singles. i noticed people lining up outside the windows on the streets that were afraid to come in. we should have put a GIANT sign that said “FREEEEEE SHOOOOW COOOMEEE IIINNNN!” because i guess they assumed they would have to pay a cover

girlfriends was awesome as usual. getting tighter and more into a vibe

benny wailed

there was a mr. t piece behind jenny. see? after our sets we hung out for a while at the venue until russel (?) the bartend (photographed by patrick below) told us it was closing time. jenny was trying to get a friend of a friend on the phone that offered us a place to stay. only issue was that it was around 12:30/1:00 am and the friend of a friend was at a dinner party somewhere around the corner

we drove off and headed in the direction of the dinner party counting the stacks of loot we made that night.

which was a two dollar donation split among both bands from a passerby. we eventually hooked  up with a fellow named brown who was so generously offering his place for us to sleep at, having never met us or even seen our show. we paid him in records and thank yous.

his room mate basically had a record store set up in their kitchen. i was pretty impressed

seems like a good way to store lps. i slept in a musky basement all by my lonesome, no one else would venture down there with me. i guess i slept the best though. i dozed off to the soothing sound of stephen colbert.

we said goodbye to brown’s place and boarded bessie on our way to the next location

i can’t even remember where that was but i think it was oxford, mississippi. further updates to come when i have more time